If not the ipad then what instead?

[rocketpig]

llewdebkram said:

Paul said:
I spent $200 on a playbook. It's great, the browser is way better than the one on my wife's ipad.

The playbook is from Blackberry?

I've seen a few comments on other forums that teh Blackberry tablet isn't that good.

As a user yourself would you disagree?

Right now, I wouldn't pay more than $50 for a Playbook. Blackberry has lost their ass on that tablet and will almost surely be making a rapid exit from the market. The company as a whole is doomed. I haven't seen a fight this one-sided since Apple was out of ideas and was being brutalized by MS on every front in the mid 90s.

If you want something cheap, go find a Moto Xoom for $250-300. Unlike the Fire, at least it's actually running a tablet OS and unlike the Playbook, will continue to see app support in the future (not that I'm saying the Playbook has any real app support today, either).

But, really, just go buy a fucking iPad. It's such a blatantly superior device that I don't understand spending more than $300 for anything else on the market. The app support, long-term OS support, and general state of the Android tablet OS is miles behind the iPad. Maybe other people don't mind but if I owned a first gen Xoom (purchased about a year ago) and found out that I would have to wait until Verizon sees fit to upgrade me to Ice Cream Sandwich while the wi-fi models are already upgraded, the top of my head would fucking explode. That kind of product support doesn't fly on $200 products, much less $500+ hardware. I'm pretty angry at the entire Android ecosystem right now and unless something drastically changes in the next six months, there is zero chance that my next phone will be an Android (which it is currently). I've been saying this for two years and it could end up being the death of Android as a top-shelf OS if Microsoft ever gets their shit together and charges hard at the void Android is leaving wide open with their fragmented-to-all-bloody-hell ecosystem.

It's really easy, Google. All it takes is two things.

1. Stop letting companies skin your OS. It's a terrible idea. Just stop it. Now. It creates no brand loyalty and confuses customers.
2. Do some of the fucking coding yourself. Stop making carriers and hardware manufacturers make your OS work with their hardware and for bloody hell, STOP letting them release updates whenever they feel like it. OS updates should be day-and-date for everyone, JUST LIKE EVERY OTHER OPERATING SYSTEM ON THE PLANET.